I keep waiting for the revolution. I keep waiting for American women to take off the rose-colored glasses and realize they are being screwed.

State by state, bill by bill, American women are being methodically and systematically fucked.

Make no mistake. Bills and legislature passed in the guise of ‘protecting’ women’s health (I’m looking at you Texas) and those which put an unnecessary burden on a woman’s right to have an abortion (Yeah, that’s you Indiana) have nothing to do with protecting women. They have nothing to do with believing in life at conception.

Every time a bill is passed restricting abortion even further, it DOES NOT help women. Every time a decision is handed down allowing a corporation or business to refuse to cover birth control, it DOES NOT help women.

Making abortion difficult to get is NOT GOING TO STOP women seeking abortions. Making a law which requires all miscarriages and aborted fetuses to be cremated, as the one in Indiana does, DOES NOT help women. Forcing women to carry to term a fetus which has no viability outside of the womb or a limited, horrific quality of life, whether that pregnancy was longed for or not, is not fucking helping women.

In case the language I’ve chosen for this piece doesn’t make it clear, restricting or outright banning abortion in NO WAY HELPS WOMEN.

You know what it does? It squeezes women into situations whereby they are forced, legally, financially or emotionally to get screwed in more ways than the one that got them pregnant in the first place.

Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term has implications ranging from psychological to financial. It is not being able to finish school or not going in the first place. It means fewer (if any) chances at promotions or a career track. It mean making even less on the dollar. It means forcing a woman to stay in an unhappy or even abusive relationship. And fuck you if you think the answer to that is to simply walking away.

Because where is she going to go?

The GOP and far-right have well and truly screwed women by continuing to restrict abortion, limiting birth control, cutting welfare programs and having ABSOLUTELY NO SAFETY NET for maternity leave or subsidized child care.

If the GOP and the far right cared so much about women and their potential children, they would have the world’s best maternity leave, free child care, free health care, pre-natal screening, quality education, and a welfare state that rivals Sweden’s.

But they don’t.

Because none of this is about helping women. It’s about keeping women in their place. And that place is NOT at the top of the food chain.

Restricting abortion and birth control has nothing to do with beliefs or religion. It has to do with regulating sexuality and further oppressing the poor and minorities. The far-right and parts of the GOP (and some Dems too) want to control who, when, where and how women have sex. They want them to keep their legs shut or live with the consequences. The consequences being of course, exactly what they are right now: Living in a society in which they are second-rate, second-best and at the mercy of a government made up of white men.

Don’t be fooled. When the senator’s daughter gets knocked up or the State Rep’s wife finds out the baby she is carrying has Trisomy, abortion will be an option. For those who have the means and the money, abortion will always remain an option, as it always has. You know who these laws are aimed at? The poor. Minorities. The very women who need easy access to abortion in the first place.

The female GOP base is starting to wake up to what a lot of us have seen for a while. Chip away here, chip away there. It’s all well and good when it doesn’t affect the rich and the white. But an outright ban would do just that. If American women don’t wake up and start fighting back, this will only be the beginning.

There is nothing ‘pro-life’ about these bills. If there were, the entire American society would be set up to HELP mothers (and fathers). From rigorous sex education, to birth control to federally funded, regulated day care to medical facilities set up to help those babies born with devastating diagnoses and counseling services for parents who have to needlessly watch their children die. There would be mandatory PAID parental leave for a start.

There would be anti-rape education and harsher sentences for rapists and domestic abusers. There would be better domestic violence programs and recovery programs. There would be service after service put into place to promote all the lives that were brought forth: wanted, unwanted, healthy or terminal.

Where are those things, Mike Pence? Where are those services Texas? You aren’t pro-life. You don’t care about my heath. You want to make sure I stay exactly where I belong. With just enough rights that I feel placated but without the authority to control my own body.

Screw you. This bitch is pissed.

The rest of you should be too.

If you should never underestimate the power of a pissed off woman, imagine the power of a whole country’s worth.

Please submit your blog for congressional hearings on the topic, maybe an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, when, hopefully these bills will be ruled unconstitutional. I think one simple thing is being conveniently forgotten by the sponsors of these Bills and restrictions- that conception requires the involvement of both a man and a woman.

I’m not sure they are forgetting that part. These bills ARE unconstitutional, and will eventually be found as such, but we still must waste money and time (and emotion) on fighting something that was decided over 40 years ago. When vasectomies are covered under Hobby Lobby’s insurance and yet an IUD is not…this doesn’t raise any flags? The only thing I can say is that the legislature is getting so brazen and unsubtle that even GOP women are starting to get pissed. Better late than never!

One thing I’ve recently understood is it is not JUST the contraception that might not be covered. It is also the appointment during which contraception is discussed. So for example, let’s say a woman has heavy periods but has no need for birth control. A doctor would prescribe (possibly) birth control pills to control her periods better. But if that discussion even takes place, the appointment would not be covered by insurance. Perhaps someone else knows for sure on this, but I believe this is true.

Ugh. It wouldn’t surprise me. Doctors in Fla (though I may be mixing up my southern states) are not allowed to ask their patients if they have guns in the house to talk to them about gun safety. It boggles the mind. What gets my goat up more than anything is this selling point of the GOP that they want the government to stay out of individual’s business….with the caveat that unless you drink the cool-aid and fall into step they want to be all up IN your business. And your uterus. Grrrrr…..

Absolutely. I am sharing this with everyone – and for everyone, especially the teens I know. Their future is being taken away from them by people who are so out of touch that they might as well live on Uranus.

They certainly want to live in Uranus. Or in your uterus. Sorry, couldn’t resist the punchline. Yes! Young women especially who only remember a time when abortion rights were/are a given, when at least the pretense of equality was there need to know the fight is not over.

Ah, the contortions we use to make logic fit into the box we need it to fit into never cease to amaze, do they? :-). Do you happen to remember the movie Better Off Dead from the 80s with John Cusack? There’s a line where he says, “Gee, Ricky, sorry your mom blew up”. So I say to you, “Gee, Elyse, sorry your brother’s a bigot.”

Melanie, I think people (myself included at times) generally want to believe what people are telling them. So constant indoctrination of racism, sexism, pro-gun, anti-choice, homophobic rhetoric just becomes the norm. I also think that both parties tend to get filtered down to one issue and people conveniently (or perhaps astutely) ignore everything else that party stands for. Interesting tipping point for America, I think.

Well, I could be unkind and point out that you are using the work Republican and thinking in the same sentence and that’s your problem right there. But…we both know that’s not true. I think you have two camps. The rapidly anti-choice any abortion, birth control, masturbatory remnants represents the POTENTIAL FOR LIFE and therefore must be stopped woman who is so blinkered by this one issue she doesn’t see or more likely doesn’t care about the affects. And then you have the conservative, educated GOP woman who isn’t affected by most of this stuff because she is white, buffeted by fantastic health insurance and knows that she’ll be able to procure any of these things if need be. But…and this is the important part, THOSE women seem to be stepping up this election (to a degree). It started with Trump and now I’m seeing it with these laws where even GOP women are expressing their concern at the scope of them. The intelligent rational woman wants there to be a measured reversal of legislature. The pissed of bitch wants to bring the motherfuckers down.

I agree, and am coming to a sort of personal turning point about this issue. Working for a church in such an extremely religiously backwards state, I’ve been very hesitant to speak my mind about many issues, but this one one in particular. I’m coming to realize that if I’m going to continue in the work I do, I can no longer be silent…seriously, I’m in the midst of an existential crisis. Not that abortion or women’s rights are ever even discussed within our congregation. I’m having a hard time seeing what the path forward for me is in my role as a person who works with children and families. Sorry, just rambling and trying to clarify in my own mind…

Don’t apologize at all! I can’t even imagine the gridlock your brain is in when it comes to that. I think many times we can compartmentalize our beliefs to justify things (I keep telling myself this is what happens when people support Donald Trump), but sometimes they rise to the surface and you reach a cross-roads. One of the reasons I left the Catholic church was that I felt they were never going to view me as equal. Ever. Even when it comes down to having altar boys/girls. I was always going to be secondary and placated by the reverence given to Mary as the mother figure. But that’s not good enough for me. It went against everything my heart and my brain told me was right and true. Luckily for me it was a cut and dry issue. Most of the time it is not. You know, at the end of the day, I think every single person you meets would like to cut down on the number of abortions. Ironically, the things that would cut down on the number of abortions are also things which many ‘religions’ seem to be against. So they are shooting themselves in the foot in a way. So unless anti-choice people are going to come up with a way to make families a priority ( a real way, not the Bush family matters bullshit), then anti-abortion to me is always going to be about keeping women in their place. There, I just ranted right back at you!

The cognitive dissonance so many women manage to maintain regarding this subject really blows my mind.
Interestingly, in our denomination (ELCA Lutheran) it’s a matter of principle that each individual follows his or her “bound conscience” on issues that can legitimately have two sides (gay marriage & ordination of gay clergy, for example) even though the churchwide stance is for full support. It’s a deliberate decision NOT to tell members how or what to believe, which I appreciate even though my personal opinion is that on many of those controversial issues there is only one good answer. That means that my churchwide body completely supports my point of view on issues like abortion – but individuals I work with may very well disagree vehemently. In one sense it’s freeing to be allowed to live in tension rather than having a hard line, my-way-or-the highway approach. On the other hand, it makes for extremely awkward interaction on the congregational level.

THIS IS US… a colorful, collaborative, collection of truth-tellers, soul-sharers, magic makers and game shakers. All that have a unique story to tell, angle to take and position they stand strongly behind.